California State Fair Presentation

This year at the State Fair there is a "Pedaling to Adventure" exhibit which showcases the history of bicycles and bicycle racing.  It's a really interesting place to walk through, especially the mountain bike section with the pictures and stories of the first races down Mt. Tam on modified cruiser bikes.

I was asked to help out with this exhibit and supplied a few jerseys for a shadow box and a story about "my first bike" for one wall where my story was amongst other big names in cycling, Olympians, national and world champions, and hall of fame members.  Looking around at the other people showcased on that wall I was truly humbled to be in their company.  I was also asked to come and speak about mountain bike racing and be available for questions.

So this past Saturday I sat down in front of a crowd on two separate occasions and shared my passion about mountain biking and my experiences with racing.  I fielded a number of questions as well which was my favorite part.  Two questions which spanned both presentation times were of course, "what's my worst crash?" (which would be about a month ago when I nearly crushed my trachea) and "what's the longest ride I've ever done?" (which was, at the time, 60 miles on mtb and 80 on road, but see my last post).  But overall it was just great to interact with people interested in cycling and asking honest questions about what it takes to race at my level.  I'm very happy that I was able to contribute to such a great exhibit and help promote cycling in all aspects.